


Independence Day

by Lavender_Persimmon305



Category: Captain America (2011), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: F/M, July 4th, New York City, barbeque
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-30
Updated: 2012-05-30
Packaged: 2017-11-06 07:02:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/416078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavender_Persimmon305/pseuds/Lavender_Persimmon305
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve Rogers is released from observation from S.H.I.E.L.D. to his new apartment on his birthday. Parker MacNamara helps him get settled in and meet his neighbors.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Independence Day

_July 4, 2011_

Steve Rogers gripped his duffel bag as he watched the buildings side by the car windows, New York baking in its summer heat even in the 21st century.

He grimaced, looking away from a man talking rapidly on his cell phone as he got money from an ATM.

“If you’d like, the building’s having a barbeque up on the roof this evening,” his driver said conversationally, and he looked at the redheaded woman in surprise. “You’re welcome to join us,” she smiled up at him from behind her gleaming aviators.

Steve frowned. “’Us’?” he repeated, eyeing the woman in a white eyelet sundress and a cropped red jacket.

They’d luckily stopped at a red light, and she held out a hand as she slipped her glasses on top of her head. “Hi, Parker MacNamara. I’m your neighbor across the hall.” Her green eyes were warm above her smile.

He reluctantly shook her hand, then let her get back to driving. “So, SHIELD owns apartment buildings?” he said darkly, the keys in his pants’ pocket feeling heavier every moment.

Parker nodded, pausing to let an old woman walk her terrier across the road. “Yes, but not ours.”

Steve’s head snapped around, the Captain gaping at her. “They put me in a civilian residence?” he asked incredulously. “Are they nuts?”

“No, last time my therapist checked, I’m not,” she returned, putting her sunglasses back in place.

Steve frowned. “Come again?”

Parker flicked a glance at him. “I requested you be given a normal apartment. No surveillance, no agents-only residents, nothing. I’m there, yes, in case you need a SHIELD representative, but mainly because I thought you could use a familiar face.”

Rogers lifted an eyebrow dubiously. “Beg your pardon, ma’am—“

“—Parker,” she interjected and his lips thinned. 

_“Ma’am,”_ he said firmly. “I don’t know you. Sure, I’ve seen you around the offices, but…” He shook his head. “Besides, aren’t you putting innocent people at risk letting me live among them?”

She looked over at him assessingly “You planning on killing us all in our beds?”

“No!” He squirmed in his seat, exhaling in frustration. “I have…nightmares. What if…?” He trailed off as she smoothly slid the car into a space in front of a tree-framed Brownstone.

“Captain,” she said gently as she turned off the car and faced him. “You’re not going to harm anyone. And if you need to talk, I’m across the hall. Well,” she amended, tilting her head with another smile, “most of the time. Sometimes I’m out on assignment, or I’ve got a performance out-of-town.”

“’Performance’?” Steve echoed as they got out, the heat pressing against his short-sleeved plaid shirt and khakis, and the scents of grills already being fired up drifted through the air around them. “You’re a singer?”

“Cellist,” she replied, walking around and opening the trunk. 

He inclined his head, impressed. He met her at the back and hefted out his suitcase while Parker took out her canvas market bags and closed the lid.

He stopped, looking up at the pre-war building and feeling a little closer to home.

“Ready?” Parker asked, looking up at him.

“As I’ll ever be,” he sighed, following her up to the front stoop.

 

The apartment was largely unfurnished, though it did have toiletries and towels, a telephone, food in the pantry and fridge, a television and radio, a dining set, and a bed in the master bedroom. 

“I thought you’d want to decorate on your own,” Parker explained as Steve walked back to deposit his bags in his room. “I was going to offer to take you shopping tomorrow for furniture and such, but I wasn’t sure what your plans were.” She watched him move around the space, getting a feel for his new home, his Oxfords echoing on the wood floors.

He stopped, standing in the middle of the living room and staring at the woman in front of his door. “Why are you doing this?” he frowned, not moving, and she shrugged.

“I thought you could use a friend,” she admitted. “New life, new city essentially. You seem lonely.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw, his frown not abating. “You feel sorry for me,” he said flatly. 

“I feel sorry for anyone who gets everything they know swept away from them,” she countered, her hackles rising. “Doesn’t matter if it’s some kid who lost her parents and her home to a tornado, or some guy who got frozen during my grandpa’s war,” she said, setting her bags down with a thump.

Steve folded his arms. “And what makes you an expert on me? Why’d you want to baby-sit me? Came to gawk at the ‘old man’, at the superhero turned popsicle?”

She rolled her eyes, folding her arms also. “I’m not an expert on Captain America, sir. However, my partner Phil is, so you can talk to him if you want to nitpick your dossier. And I’m not baby-sitting you. I’m just your neighbor.”

He shook his head. “Fine. But, why me? What’s your interest in this?”

Parker sighed, her arms falling to her sides. “Because someone became my friend when I had nothing, too.” She attempted a smile again, and he could see the defeat in it even from this distance as she picked up her bags once more. “The party’s at sundown. Don’t worry about bringing anything, we’ve got plenty. And all they know about you is that you’re an artist and a soldier and we work together.”

And, with that, she turned on her heel and walked out, the door closing softly behind her.

Steve’s breath sounded loud in the silence as he looked around his apartment, butter-yellow sunlight streaming in the windows and sending cheerful light into the emptiness. He turned to unpack, and a flash of colour on the kitchen counter caught his attention.

He frowned again and walked towards it, his forehead relaxing as he realized it was a present in brightly patterned paper, a foil bow gleaming atop it.

He slit open the envelope that had been tucked under the ribbon with this thumb and withdrew a card. It was patterned with glittering red-white-and-blue fireworks on a white background, “Happy Birthday” scrawled in shining blue embossed letters above the explosions. He groaned when he opened it, feminine script dancing over the page, Parker’s words wishing him a happy day and welcoming him to his new home.

The wrapping paper fell away as he ripped it, revealing a new sketch book and pencils, and he smiled faintly as he breathed in the scent of the blank pages and charcoals, his glancing moving back to the door Parker had closed behind her.

 

Music poured cheerfully across the rooftops, strands of lights illuminating the gathering on top of the building, children running and playing in between the small clusters of adults while the aroma of the food laid out on a bunting-draped table drifted over the breeze.

Steve surveyed the party and took a breath, a smile breaking through when he spotted Parker talking to another woman, her laughter carrying back to him as he moved forward.

Her friend said something and MacNamara turned, her face lighting up when she saw him. “You came!” she grinned, the tall soldier’s eyes soft as he looked down at her.

“You invited me. It would be rude of me to turn you down,” he answered, his hands shoved self-consciously in his pockets.

She rolled her eyes and laughed as she shook her head. “Don’t sweat it.” She turned to the woman she was talking to. “Teresa, this is Steve.”

She grinned and shook his hand, the sunset picking up the reddish tints in her light brown hair. “Hi, nice to meet you!”

“Likewise,” he smiled. “So, you live in the building?” He winced very slightly. Of course she lived in the building. Everyone at the party lived in the building, but Teresa only smiled and linked her arm through his, Steve leading her to a table a few feet away.

Parker grinned, watching them, and pulled out her cell phone, dialing a number by heart.

_“Yes?”_

She smiled, wrapping an arm around her middle and bracing her other elbow on it as she looked out over the skyline. “Hi.”

She could hear Coulson smile, and it made her miss him even more. _“Happy Fourth,”_ he greeted, the chatter and static of field communications sounding in the background.

“Same to you. How’s it going?” she asked, lifting her cup of soda from the ledge and taking a sip before setting it back down, her thoughts with her partner across the country from her.

“Not bad. Just getting equipment into place. You?” Coulson tapped a couple of keys on his laptop, ignoring the bustle of agents around him as he settled on an empty crate in front of his makeshift desk on another crate, the late afternoon sun of the Mojave desert burning into his shoulders through his shirt, his suit jacket laid neatly by the computer. 

“Pretty good. Cookout on the roof.” She pushed a hand through her hair and tucked the curls behind her ear, the breeze beginning to pick up.

Phil’s head tilted as the satlink image drifted into focus, the pixels melding together as the camera floating miles above the Earth zeroed in on his target, his screen filling with a soft amber glow that reflected off of the sunglasses of the woman standing on a rooftop, her hair lifting in the wind that ruffled the skirt of her white dress. “Sounds good. How’s he settling in?” he asked, looking back briefly at the vintage hero chatting with a curvy bombshell at a nearby table.

Parker looked over her shoulder with a smile, then turned back around to push her sunglasses up into her hair again. “He’s good, I think. First night’s always the toughest, so we’ll see.”

“You did a good thing, you know. I’m proud.” He grinned as she did also, and he was surprised to see the faint blush touching her cheeks.

“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t want to let you down,” she mumbled. “I’d better go. I think the burgers are about done. Be safe, Phil. Okay?”

“Yes, ma’am. See you in a few days.” He watched her arm tighten slightly around her middle, and he hoped she hadn’t eaten something that was hurting her.

“Yup. See you.” She hung up, folding both of her arms and looking out over the buildings before putting her glasses back on and going back to the party.

Phil watched for a moment more as she moved into the crowd of people, Rogers and his companion soon joining as dinner got underway, and he broke the link and closed his computer, letting the bustle of the Joint Dark Energy Mission campus draw him back to his task.


End file.
